Pat Healy Discusses Making His Directorial Debut After Being An Actor For Over 20 Years

Pat Healy is one of those actors who has popped up in just about everything out there. For over 20 years, he’s racked up a resumé of 100 movie and TV roles including Shameless, Compliance, and Magnolia. So what makes a well-seasoned actor like that finally decide to step behind the camera and direct his first feature?

HitFix host Miri Jedeikin sat down with Healy to ask him exactly that. He makes his directorial debut with the screwball comedy/film noir Take Me, which he also stars in alongside Orange Is The New Black‘s Taylor Schilling. In the interview above, Healy discusses what drew him to this project about a man who specializes in simulated abductions. Helming a movie is obviously a much different undertaking than starring in it, and he goes into how doing both for Take Me has changed his opinion on acting, including the torturous nature of spending months in an editing room having to look at his own face as the film’s lead. He also goes into the years he spent in the entertainment industry before making this picture and why he felt that Schilling was perfect for her role that required both strong comedic and dramatic chops.